A new medical research centre is to be established in NUI Galway as part of a €245 million Government investment in science and technology.
In addition, NUIG is to play a key role in two other research centres as well as securing one of five new Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centres receiving major investment from the Government—a total of €155 million of Irish exchequer funding will be invested coupled with over €90 million in cash and in-kind contributions from industry partners. The funding will be provided over the next six years with a mid-term review.
Cúram—the Centre for Research in Medical Devices will be based at NUIG and its prime objective will be to radically improve health outcomes for patients by developing innovative implantable medical devices to treat major unmet medical needs.
The college’s Professor Abhay Pandit, who is currently Director of the Network of Excellence for Functional Biomaterials (NFB), will be the Director of Cúram.
Cúram will design and create implantable smart medical devices. Implants will be designed and manufactured to respond to the body’s environment and to deliver therapeutic agents, such as drugs, exactly where needed. Cutting-edge science will develop devices using the very latest research from biomaterials. stem cells and drug delivery. Devices will be developed with strong clinical collaborations and with industry partners and hospital groups to enable rapid translation to the clinic.
Cúram will also sustain and permanently strengthen Ireland’s standing as a major global hub for medical device sector research and development. Cúram brings together researchers from NUI Galway, UCD, DCU, UL, UCC and RCSI and will include almost forty industry partners, including indigenous Irish companies and multi-nationals, and support product development and the creation of new spin-out companies.
iCrag—Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences is focused on unlocking Ireland’s natural resources and providing solutions to resource security problems by securing supplies of energy, minerals and safe water. Part of this work will involve de-risking investment by exploration companies in Ireland by providing better descriptions and models of the geology to improve our understanding of the key processes influencing their formation.
The Lero Software Research Centre is also a key part of the Lero Software Research Centre and will replicate the success of traditional software engineering in the context of large-scale, pervasive, physically integrated, highly interconnected, evolving, and continuously available systems, in which the boundary between design time and runtime is disappearing.
Dr Kieran Conboy, Dean of College of Business, Public Policy & Law at NUI Galway will lead a group of fourteen new research staff to work on software project management and innovation.
Dr Jim Browne, President of NUI Galway, said: “This is a wonderful endorsement of NUI Galway’s consistent approach to supporting selected priority areas of research, particularly in the area of biomedical science. Cúram will draw on the very significant pool of talented biomedical researchers on our campus.”